Erik Zhang outlines contract whitelist for zero-fee execution, unified token layer for Neo 4

Neo co-founder Erik Zhang has detailed a set of protocol-level updates spanning Neo N3 and the upcoming Neo 4, centered on transaction price management and native token infrastructure.

Contract price whitelist

Neo core builders have accomplished growth of a Contract Payment Whitelist for Neo N3, with the function now coming into testing and porting to Neo 4. The mechanism permits chosen good contracts to function below different price guidelines, outlined on the protocol stage.

Whitelisted contracts undertake a fixed-rate GAS mannequin, enabling predictable and steady execution prices. For Neo 4, the design extends additional, introducing a zero-fee execution mode for essential on-chain infrastructure. This is applicable to make use of instances corresponding to stablecoins and identification methods, the place transactions could be executed with out GAS charges on the protocol stage.

Management over the whitelist is assigned to the Neo Council by means of the native PolicyContract, permitting governance to find out which contracts qualify.

TokenManagement native contract

Zhang additionally introduced the addition of TokenManagement, a brand new native contract designed to unify token infrastructure on Neo. The contract supplies a shared basis for each fungible and non-fungible tokens, changing the necessity for tasks to implement token logic independently. The NEO and GAS native contracts can even be adjusted to make use of the brand new administration contract.

TokenManagement helps NEP-17-style fungible tokens and NFTs utilizing the identical underlying primitives, together with deterministic asset identification, shared accounting logic, unified storage, and standardized occasions and callbacks.

By consolidating these elements on the protocol stage, Neo goals to cut back duplicated code and enhance token safety throughout the ecosystem.

Protected token callbacks

As a part of the TokenManagement rollout, Neo has added digital machine-level enforcement for token callbacks. Strategies corresponding to onPayment, onNFTPayment, onTransfer, and onNFTTransfer can now solely be invoked by native contracts.

This alteration prevents spoofed callback calls, solid token interactions, and a category of reentrancy and logic-spoofing assaults. Token callback safety is enforced straight by the VM moderately than counting on developer conference.

Enshrining protocol-level primitives

In keeping with Zhang, TokenManagement displays a broader shift in Neo’s design philosophy. Core mechanics are being moved into audited native contracts, permitting utility builders to deal with higher-level logic as a substitute of low-level accounting or implementation particulars.

Neo positions this method as groundwork for additional bettering on-chain safety whereas bettering the long-term maintainability of the protocol.

The bulletins could also be discovered on Zhang’s X web page:
https://x.com/neoerikzhang